New research on men: What do we know now?

Some new research has come out on men that may or may not be news to you. David DiSalvo at BrainSpin put it this way: “Only occasionally do studies come out that improve the image of men as more than stubborn, violent and incorrigible beasts with malfunctioning moral compasses. The one I’m about to talk about isn’t one of them.”

Here’s a rundown on the latest research findings on men:

Men feel less guilt than women. While women may legitimately be described as feeling “too much” guilt, mean are guilty of feeling “too little”. Researchers think that the difference is likely due to socialization and educational practices. We would say it is likely sometimes reinforced by our legal system. Take, for example, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals telling a man convicted of possession of child pornography that he had no obligation to inform his probation officer of involvement in a romantic relationship and no obligation to inform any woman with whom he might become involved of his child pornography conviction.

Men prefer Beyonce’s hourglass figure to the more spare frame of say, Kate Moss. These scientists used eye-tracking devices as the men looked at photographs of women to quantify male preference for curves.

Men are survivors. If you are on a sinking ship (think Titanic) or in a plane crash and want to survive—it’s good to be a man. On a study of plane emergency evacuations, gender was the most predictive factor in survival (followed closely by proximity to exit). I think that may mean men are more likely to shove the women and children out of the way…

We’re not sure what these findings mean for litigation. But we cover research on women (here and here) and brains so it kind of makes sense to cover men too.